George Zurita can tell you it was no piece of cake when he launched his concrete contracting business almost 12 years ago.

Although he had experience as a former employee of Zachry Construction Corp., he couldn't get a line of credit or a loan for his company, Z&L Concrete Contractors.

“Here I was — a concrete contractor, and I couldn't even buy concrete,” he said.

But Zurita knocked on doors and established relationships with suppliers and vendors. Soon he was able to buy a concrete mixer truck. “I was able to get established little by little,” Zurita said.

He said his business as a subcontractor was “great” until December, when the company from which he got 90 percent of his business, Ballenger Construction Co., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

Now, though, things are looking up again. Recently, Zurita took a big step toward expanding his business when he completed a program offered by Bexar County. With the help of the program, he obtained bonding for the first time for $500,000.

That enabled Zurita last week to bid on his first job with TxDOT for structural concrete work. He placed fourth out of 12 bidders.

Bidding on the job “felt great,” Zurita said. “Never before in the history of my business was I able to bid as a general contractor. Although I didn't win the job, I was happy to know the process of what it takes to be able to bid on your own.”

The bonding instruction course that helped Zurita is one of a set of programs that the county, in conjunction with the San Antonio Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, offers small, minority- and women-owned businesses.

The programs start with a basic 10-week program that's designed to help contractors understand the key elements of running a commercial construction business, said Renée Watson, manager of the programs for the county.

The bonding course was added this year, Watson said.

Another participant in the bonding class, Patrick McMullen, CEO of MGS Construction in San Antonio, a commercial builder, said he went into the county's basic program “with zero bonding.”

“We had a $50,000 line of credit, so we were pretty cash-strapped,” he said. “We were running a construction company off our four credit cards.”

But as a result of making changes after the basic program, McMullen was able to boost the company's line of credit to $150,000.

After the second program on bonding, “that's where the skies opened up, because we went from $150,000 to $1 million line of credit,” McMullen said.

Like Zurita, McMullen has applied to go to the next step: being matched with a mentor company.

“I think we need it,” said McMullen, whose company has grown from two to 60 employees since its founding 26 months ago. “We've grown too quick. This will be a chance to have a successful business owner come in and help us identify the deficiencies in our business.”

Doug McMurry, executive vice president of AGC's local chapter, said, “We have more eligible protégés than ever. Right now, I'm frantically recruiting more mentors. It's a nice problem to have.”